Bingo Hell -- Multicultural Golden Girls Kick the Shit Out of the Devil

 


Name: Bingo Hell

Directed By: Gigi Saul Guerrero 

Subgenre: Comedy

Series: Spooktober 2021 entry #11; review #104

Review: In Bingo Hell, a coven of multicultural Golden Girls kick the shit out of the Devil. Unfortunately, everything before that is generally a disjointed, disappointing mess. Oak Springs is changing. New money is flowing into the town bringing gentrification and hipsters in its wake. The last straw for Lupita and her cadre of geriatric comrades is when their beloved bingo hall is bought about by Mr. Bigs, transforming it from a quaint but wholesome community center to a gaudy, soulless casino. Mr. Bigs preaches on about the virtue of desire for a bit, then shows the crowd the new bingo grand-prize: $10k, a life-changing sum in dreary Oak Springs. When then get to see that money can buy many things, but it can't buy back your soul. One by one, Oak Springers succumb to their greed and die in a pool of green, goopy slime (greed is slimy, you see--laying the metaphor on pretty thick). Lupita must mobilize the town to push the new evil from their town. The film does a fairly good job of giving you time to get to know the major players in town, from fiery Lupita to the struggling Dolores and town princess / hair dresser Yolanda, but it fails to give any rhyme or reason to Mr. Bigs' presence besides him being generically evil. He certainly has the creepy smile down, but that's about as intimidating as he gets. Horror, in Bingo Hell, comes from the fairly rapid declination into greed-induced hallucinations that lead to the character's demise, and they're all very nonsensical. I'm fine with nonsense films, but Bingo Hell's horror elements just felt random and phoned in. As a story about the struggles of aging while watching the town you love crumble and give way to modern, dehumanizing renovation, Bingo Hell does well to pull you in and make you care about the drama between Lupita and Dolores and everyone in between but, as a horror movie, it stretches its premise too thin. Bingo Hell could have been so much more if more time had been given to developing the horrifying elements, or even leaning into the dark comedy of it all, but the film we have will remain entirely forgettable.




Overall Score: 2 out of 5 Chads who are going to sit this round out, thanks. Did Bingo Hell scare you? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

IMDB: Here

How to Watch: Bingo Hell is available on these platforms.


Official Trailer



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shevenge

Image
  Name :  Shevenge Directed   By :  Various--check the IMDB page linked below, as each of the segments in the anthology were directed by a different director. Subgenre : Anthology Series :  Spooktober 2019 entry #10; review #41 Review : Shevenge is an anthology of horror shorts entirely directed by women and centered around the central concept of women seeking out vengeance against those that have wronged them in some way--shevengeance, if you will. The film is broken up into 12ish stories (if we include the sign off from the mostly unnecessary Hostess character leading us through the various entries and segments) that are loosely tied into four over-arching themes: Kiss and Kill, Murderous Moms, Anger Management, and Love You to Pieces. After watching the similarly titled and themed Prevenge , I knew I had to check this one out. Now, that motivation was also spurred on by the fairly glaring reviews against the film that, frankly, come off as a notably misogyn...
Read more

Tigers Are Not Afraid

Image
  Name :  Tigers Are Not Afraid Directed   By : Issa López Subgenre : Foreign, Fantasy, Thriller Series :  Spooktober 2020 entry #20; review #82 Review : Let me start by saying that I love this movie. It's a multi-layered modern day ghost story / fairy tale fusion that's as uncompromising as it is creative. I absolutely want to gush about this movie, but doing so would rob each of you of a more pure, first-time experience with the film. Stop what you're doing and go watch it, then come back here, finish the review, and then leave me a comment. So, while my reviews tend already be fairly succinct, this review will be even shorter than usual. Hey, we've all got those days. But seriously, go watch it and then tell me how wrong (or right) I am. Tigers Are Not Afraid is a Mexican film about a young girl, who happens to be gifted with three wishes, as she joins with a group of kids who have all made orphans by the local cartel. Given the mix of dark whimsy and even bl...
Read more

Absentia -- Mike Flanagan's First Foray into Horror

Image
  Name :  Absentia Directed   By : Mike Flanagan   Subgenre : Creature Feature Thriller Series :  Spooktober 2021 entry #18; review #111 Review : Mike Flanagan is so hot right now. You may already know this from my review (or literally anyone else's, as there's no dearth of opinions floating around the internet) of Midnight Mass , or you may know Flanagan from his work on Doctor Sleep, Oculus, The Haunting of Hill House and/or Bly Manor ; either way, putting his name on a horror project is like printing money. And that's largely due to him proving how original and creative his visions are, so I wanted to go back and check on his first foray into the realm of horror: 2011's Absentia . Absentia is a good film, but it's not without it's flaws. After binging Midnight Mass before checking this one out, it's fun to see just how much Flanagan has grown as a writer and director. Originally funded via a Kickstarter campaign, Absentia follows Tricia as she tak...
Read more